User:Amira Swedan/sandbox

=the role of social media in revolutionItalic text= ''' All revolutions differ; perhaps, however, modern and future revolutions have fundamentally changed due to the internet and social media. The greatest problem for would-be revolutionaries is organization ''' ==Social media has also changed the effectiveness of the dictator’s methods to quell a revolution. In the past, a dictator could kill a dissident to silence him while only angering a few close relatives and friends. Today, as in the case of Khaled Saeed, the deceased can become a rallying cry for thousands and his message quickly spread. The dictator’s action, while silencing one, angers thousands. Since the revolutionaries’ tactics have changed, perhaps the dictators need to as well. In some Asian countries, authoritarian regimes restrict internet access such as China’s “great firewall”.2 Pakistan has decided to build its own web wall to partially block users from certain websites while North Korea effectively does not have internet.3 Restricting the internet involves a trade-off between the internet’s efficiency gains and the possibility of social unrest== ==Of course,  there is always the good old-fashioned bribe. The problem is enforcing the bribe. Hopefully, the bribe is not taken and then used against the dictator. Instead of a cash bribe, the dictator could employ or create governmental positions for his opposition. This co-option of leading revolutionaries may help kill a revolution before it starts.4 Perhaps the best method of keeping a revolution at bay is to make the people happier by governing better==